Extraction of Pyridines into Fluorous Solvents Based on Hydrogen Bond Complex Formation with Carboxylic Acid Receptors

Lipid vesicle formation by encapsulation of SMALPs in surfactant-stabilised droplets

Understanding the intricate functions of membrane proteins is pivotal in cell biology and drug discovery. The composition of the cell membrane is highly complex, with different types of membrane proteins and lipid species. Hence, studying cellular membranes in a complexity-reduced context is important to enhance our understanding of the roles of these different elements. However, reconstitution of membrane proteins in an environment that closely mimics the cell, like giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), remains challenging, often requiring detergents that compromise protein function. To address this challenge, we present a novel strategy to manufacture GUVs from styrene maleic acid lipid particles (SMALPs) that utilises surfactant-stabilised droplets as a template. As a first step towards the incorporation of membrane proteins, this work focusses on the conversion of pure lipid SMALPs in GUVs. To evaluate the method, we produced a new form of SMA linked to fluorescein, referred to as FSMA. We demonstrate the assembly of SMALPs at the surfactant-stabilised droplet interface, resulting in the formation of GUVs when released upon addition of a demulsifying agent. The released vesicles appear similar to electroformed vesicles imaged with confocal light microscopy, but a fluorescein leakage assay and cryo-TEM imaging reveal their porous nature, potentially as a result of residual interactions of SMA with the lipid bilayer. Our study represents a significant step towards opening new avenues for comprehensive protein research in a complexity-reduced, yet biologically relevant, setting.

Nitrate measurement in droplet flow: gas-mediated crosstalk and correction

In droplet microfluidics, droplets have traditionally been considered discrete self-contained reaction chambers, however recent work has shown that dissolved solutes can transfer into the oil phase and migrate into neighbouring droplets under certain conditions. The majority of reports on such inter-droplet "crosstalk" have focused on surfactant-driven mechanisms, such as transport within micelles. While trialling a droplet-based system for quantifying nitrate in water, we encountered crosstalk driven by a very different mechanism: conversion of the analyte to a gaseous intermediate which subsequently diffused between droplets. Importantly we found that the crosstalk occurred predictably, could be experimentally quantified, and measurements rationally post-corrected. This showed that droplet microfluidic systems susceptible to crosstalk such as this can nonetheless be used for quantitative analysis.

New fluorous ponytailed 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium halide salts

It is possible that fluorous compounds could be utilized as directing forces in crystal engineering for applications in materials chemistry or catalysis. Although numerous fluorous compounds have been used for various applications, their structures in the solid state remains a lively matter for debate. The reaction of 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridine with HX(X= I or Cl) yielded new fluorous ponytailed pyridinium halide salts, namely 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium iodide, C8H9F3NO+·I−, (1), and 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium chloride, C8H9F3NO+·Cl−, (2), which were characterized by IR spectroscopy, multinuclei (1H,13C and19F) NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Structure analysis showed that there are two types of hydrogen bonds, namely N—H...Xand C—H...X. The iodide anion in salt (1) is hydrogen bonded to three 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium cations in the crystal packing, while the chloride ion in salt (2) is involved in six hydrogen bonds to five 4-[(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium cations, which is attributed to the smaller size and reduced polarizability of the chloride ion compared to the iodide ion. In the IR spectra, the pyridinium N—H stretching band for salt (1) exhibited a blue shift compared with that of salt (2).

Controlling molecular transport in minimal emulsions

Emulsions are metastable dispersions in which molecular transport is a major mechanism driving the system towards its state of minimal energy. Determining the underlying mechanisms of molecular transport between droplets is challenging due to the complexity of a typical emulsion system. Here we introduce the concept of ‘minimal emulsions', which are controlled emulsions produced using microfluidic tools, simplifying an emulsion down to its minimal set of relevant parameters. We use these minimal emulsions to unravel the fundamentals of transport of small organic molecules in water-in-fluorinated-oil emulsions, a system of great interest for biotechnological applications. Our results are of practical relevance to guarantee a sustainable compartmentalization of compounds in droplet microreactors and to design new strategies for the dynamic control of droplet compositions.

Emulsion droplets have many biotechnological applications, such as parallelized single cell analysis. Here, Gruner et al. introduce the concept of the minimal emulsions in a microfluidic device that allows full control of molecular transport between emulsion droplets.

Creating biocompatible oil-water interfaces without synthesis: direct interactions between primary amines and carboxylated perfluorocarbon surfactants

Currently, one of the most prominent methods used to impart biocompatibility to aqueous-in-oil droplets is to synthesize a triblock copolymer surfactant composed of perfluoropolyether and polyether blocks. The resulting surfactants (EA surfactant, KryJeffa, etc.) allow generation of highly biocompatible droplet surfaces while maintaining the heat stability of the starting material. However, production of these surfactants requires expertise in synthetic organic chemistry, creating a barrier to widespread adoption in the field. Herein, we describe a simple alternative to synthetic modification of surfactants to impart biocompatibility. We have observed that aqueous-in-oil droplet surfaces can be made biocompatible and heat stable by merely exploiting binding interactions between polyetherdiamine additives in the aqueous phase and carboxylated perfluorocarbon surfactants in the oil phase. Droplets formed under these conditions are shown to possess biocompatible surfaces capable of supporting picoliter-scale protein assays, droplet polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and droplet DNA amplification with isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA). Droplets formed with polyetherdiamine aqueous additives are stable enough to withstand temperature cycling during PCR (30-40 cycles at 60-94 °C) while maintaining biocompatibility, and the reaction efficiency of RPA is shown to be similar to that with a covalently modified surfactant (KryJeffa). The binding interaction was confirmed with various methods, including FT-IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and fluorescence microscopy. Overall, our results suggest that, by simply introducing a commercially-available, polyetherdiamine additive (Jeffamine ED-900) to the aqueous phase, researchers can avoid synthetic methods in generating biocompatible droplet surfaces capable of supporting DNA and protein analysis at the subnanoliter scale.

Potentiometric sensors based on fluorous membranes doped with highly selective ionophores for carbonate

Manganese(III) complexes of three fluorophilic salen derivatives were used to prepare ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with ionophore-doped fluorous sensing membranes. Because of their extremely low polarity and polarizability, fluorous media are not only chemically very inert but also solvate potentially interfering ions poorly, resulting in a much improved discrimination of such ions. Indeed, the new ISEs exhibited selectivities for CO(3)(2-) that exceed those of previously reported ISEs based on nonfluorous membranes by several orders of magnitude. In particular, the interference from chloride and salicylate was reduced by 2 and 6 orders of magnitude, respectively. To achieve this, the selectivities of these ISEs were fine-tuned by addition of noncoordinating hydrophobic ions (i.e., ionic sites) into the sensing membranes. Stability constants of the anion-ionophore complexes were determined from the dependence of the potentiometric selectivities on the charge sign of the ionic sites and the molar ratio of ionic sites and the ionophore. For this purpose, a previously introduced fluorophilic tetraphenylborate and a novel fluorophilic cation with a bis(triphenylphosphoranylidene)ammonium group, (R(f6)(CH(2))(3))(3)PN(+)P(R(f6)(CH(2))(3))(3), were utilized (where R(f6) is C(6)F(13)). The optimum CO(3)(2-) selectivities were found for sensing membranes composed of anionic sites and ionophore in a 1:4 molar ratio, which results in the formation of 2:1 complexes with CO(3)(2-) with stability constants up to 4.1 × 10(15). As predicted by established theory, the site-to-ionophore ratios that provide optimum potentiometric selectivity depend on the stoichiometries of the complexes of both the primary and the interfering ions. However, the ionophores used in this study give examples of charges and stoichiometries previously neither explicitly predicted by theory nor shown by experiment. The exceptional selectivity of fluorous membranes doped with these carbonate ionophores suggests their use not only for potentiometric sensing but also for other types of sensors, such as the selective separation of carbonate from other anions and the sequestration of carbon dioxide.

Teflon AF Materials

The unique combination of chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability, high fractional free volume, low refractive index, low surface energy, and wide optical transparency has led to growing interest in Teflon Amorphous Fluoropolymers (AFs) for a wide spectrum of applications ranging from chemical separations and sensors to bioassay platforms. New opportunities arise from the incorporation of nanoscale materials in Teflon AFs. In this chapter, we highlight fractional free volume - the most important property of Teflon AFs - with the aim of clarifying the unique transport behavior through Teflon AF membranes. We then review state-of-the-art developments based on Teflon AF platforms by focusing on the chemistry behind the applications.

Properties and transport behavior of perfluorotripentylamine (FC-70)-doped amorphous teflon AF 2400 films

Teflon AF 2400 films are known to imbibe solvents, making films in the presence of solvents less fluorous than they might otherwise be. Herein, we demonstrate that doping films with perfluorotripentylamine (Fluorinert FC-70) maintains the fluorous nature of Teflon AF 2400 and improves transport selectivity for fluorine-containing organic compounds. Density measurements on the FC-70-doped films reveal that free volume decreases dramatically as the dopant concentration increases (0-12 wt %) and then increases to approach that of pure FC-70. Remarkably, films from 0 to 12 wt % FC-70 have the same w/v concentration of Teflon AF 2400, indicating that FC-70 fills the free volume of Teflon AF 2400. This is consistent with the observed increased storage modulus and significant decrease (compared to undoped films) of solute diffusion coefficients in the same range of FC-70 concentrations. In contrast, FC-70 at concentrations greater than 12 wt % dilutes Teflon AF 2400, leading to a decrease of storage modulus and dramatic increase in solute diffusion coefficients. Sorption of chloroform decreases from 11.8 g of chloroform/100 g of film (pure Teflon film) to 3.8 g of chloroform/100 g of film (27 wt % FC-70-doped Teflon film), less than the solubility of chloroform in pure FC-70 (4.06 g of chloroform/100 g of FC-70). Solute partition coefficients from chloroform to FC-70-doped films generally decrease with increased dopant concentration. However, within a series of toluenes and nitrobenzenes, selectivity for F-containing solutes over analogous H-containing solutes increases as dopant concentration increases if the substitution is on the aromatic ring but not if it is on the methyl group (toluene). Transport (partitioning × diffusion) rates, as they involve both thermodynamic and kinetic factors, are not simply related to composition.

Electrochemistry in Media of Exceptionally Low Polarity: Voltammetry with a Fluorous Solvent

This work demonstrates the first cyclic voltammetry in a perfluorocarbon solvent without use of a cosolvent. The novel electrolyte tetrabutylammonium tetrakis[3,5-bis(perfluorohexyl)phenyl]borate (NBu(4)BArF(104); 80 mM) allows for voltammetry of ferrocene in perfluoro(methylcyclohexane) by lowering the specific resistance to Ω268 k cm at 20.8 °C. Despite significant solution resistance, the resulting voltammograms can be fitted quantitatively without difficulty. The thus determined standard electron transfer rate constant, k°, for the oxidation of ferrocene in perfluoro(methylcyclohexane) is somewhat smaller than for many solvents commonly used in electrochemistry, but can be explained readily as the result of the viscosity and size of the solvent using Marcus theory. Dielectric dispersion spectroscopy verifies that addition of NBu(4)BArF(104) does not significantly raise the overall polarity of the solution over that of neat perfluoro(methylcyclohexane).

Fluorous effects in amide-based receptors for anions

Hybrid receptors designed to recognize both the sulfonate headgroup and the fluorous tail of perfluorooctanesulfonate (CF(3)(CF(2))(7)SO(3)(-), "PFOS") were prepared by coupling fluorinated carboxylic acids onto poly(aminomethyl)benzene scaffolds. Binding to PFOS, CF(3)SO(3)(-), p-TsO(-), and Cl(-) was monitored by (1)H NMR and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). In chloroform solvent, hydrogen-bonding to anions is accompanied by downfield shifts in the amide NH protons of the fluorinated receptors and by evolution of heat. Association constants for 1:1 complexation (K(assoc)) are >1000 M(-1). An analogous hydrocarbon receptor binds weakly to anionic guests (K(assoc) < 50 M(-1)). Ab initio calculations indicate that the differences in 1:1 binding strengths between fluorous and nonfluorous hosts cannot be ascribed to differences in NH donor acidities.

Fluorous polymeric membranes for ionophore-based ion-selective potentiometry: how inert is Teflon AF?

Fluorous media are the least polar and polarizable condensed phases known. Their use as membrane materials considerably increases the selectivity and robustness of ion-selective electrodes (ISEs). In this research, a fluorous amorphous perfluoropolymer was used for the first time as a matrix for an ISE membrane. Electrodes for pH measurements with membranes composed of poly[4,5-difluoro-2,2-bis(trifluoromethyl)-1,3-dioxole]-co-poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (87% dioxole monomer content; known as Teflon AF2400) as polymer matrix, a linear perfluorooligoether as plasticizer, sodium tetrakis[3,5-bis(perfluorohexyl)phenyl]borate providing for ionic sites, and bis[(perfluorooctyl)propyl]-2,2,2-trifluoroethylamine as H+ ionophore were investigated. All electrodes had excellent potentiometric selectivities, showed Nernstian responses to H+ over a wide pH range, exhibited enhanced mechanical stability, and maintained their selectivity over at least 4 weeks. For membranes of low ionophore concentration, the polymer affected the sensor selectivity noticeably at polymer concentrations exceeding 15%. Also, the membrane resistance increased quite strongly at high polymer concentrations, which cannot be explained by the Mackie-Meares obstruction model. The selectivities and resistances depend on the polymer concentration because of a functional group associated with Teflon AF2400, with a concentration of one functional group per 854 monomer units of the polymer. In the fluorous environment of these membranes, this functional group binds to Na+, K+, Ca2+, and the unprotonated ionophore with binding constants of 10(3.5), 10(1.8), 10(6.8), and 10(4.4) M(-1), respectively. Potentiometric and spectroscopic evidence indicates that these functional groups are COOH groups formed by the hydrolysis of carboxylic acid fluoride (COF) groups originally present in Teflon AF2400. The use of higher ionophore concentrations removes the undesirable effect of these COOH groups almost completely. Alternatively, the C(=O)F groups can be eliminated chemically, or they can be used to readily introduce new functionalities.

Synthesis of deep-cavity fluorous calix[4]arenes as molecular recognition scaffolds

Several lower-rim perfluoroalkylated (fluorous) calix[4]arenes have been synthesized by O-alkylation of the parent calix[4]arene. The compounds are formed in the cone conformation. They are soluble in several fluorous solvents and show promise for use in sensing, selective extractions and other applications.